Try as you might, there are some artists on whom you just can't give up. It doesn't matter how old or irrelevant they become, how many stinkers they churn out; you'll keep giving them chance after chance, every time some overexcited fanboy critic gives their new product a preemptive thumbs up and those three dreaded words, "return to form." In the film world, Woody Allen is perhaps foremost among these dangerously uneven (but lovable) craftsmen. We asked for another Stardust Memories or Manhattan, he gave us Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Hollywood Ending. He promised us a return to quality, instead we got 100 minutes of Will Ferrell's bad Woody impression in Melinda and Melinda. But still, we forgave him - hell, we even stopped making jokes about that marrying his adopted daughter fiasco - and we came crawling back to Match Point. And people, I don't know about you, but I'm damned glad I did.
Because Match Point is, finally, that long-promised return to form - albeit in a strange, roundabout way. Sure, in lesser hands its story (a social-climbing Irish ex-tennis player in London rises to the high-society upper crust before gambling it all on a steamy, all-consuming affair with his friend's sexy American fiancee) could have been perfect fodder for a late-nite softcore "erotic thriller." But when Woody does it, it's a testament to the man's well-honed craftsmanship and debt to Russian literature alike (Dostoevsky references abound), not to mention a home for all those Allen trademarks - the spare, white-on-black titles, the themes of adultery and fate, the round-table discussions about high art, music and theatre - which for once actually surprises. To see Allen take such essentially Allenesque subject matter, what could arguably have been another literate sex comedy, and create such a tightly-wound and compelling story out of it isn't just heartening; it's probably the best argument against washed-up artist euthanasia in recent cinematic memory.
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
It's not all that good of a movie. Compelling to some degree, watchable, with some hot sex, but in the end the problem is that the idea at the heart of it just isn't all that interesting, even if Allen weren't so clumsy making it. He may have intended to leave us the message that life turns on the caprices of fate; actually, all we come away with is that it depends on the caprices of lousy police work.
2 - El Bicho
"actually, all we come away with is that it depends on the caprices of lousy police work."
That's not the only time luck played a factor in a character's life.
3 - Rodney Welch
Yeah, but so what? All Allen does is recite everyone's common gripes about luck and chance and then acts as if he's saying something weighty and substantial. Allen once joked that if he could make one more person feel miserable, he'd be happy; now he seems to be limiting this ambition to the barely sentient, and those who might feel they've sat through a story for not all that much. The movie doesn't reveal anything about life we do not already know. I cannot for the life of me imagine anyone watching this thing and then visiting a coffee shop to discuss it, can you?
4 - Zach
No, I wouldn't visit a coffee shop to discuss the "message," but I'd sure as hell talk about the film itself - and have. Why does every movie have to impart some deep philosophical meaning, or reveal anything "new" about life (is there even such thing, after thousands of years of human history)? I'd argue that luck and fate are just themes in Match Point, and not attempts at a "message" at all.
5 - Rodney Welch
I didn't say every movie had to have meaning. My problem is that this one clearly thinks it does -- and it doesn't, really. Newness is beside the point. What I want is interesting.
6 - Don Baiocchi
Good review. I agree the first scene between Chris and Nola was not good - forced, unconvincing, etc. But the dream sequence was just that, a dream (belonging to the cop...that's how he became convinced Chris was guilty). I admit at first I wasn't buying it, but then I thought it worked.
And yes, Allen definitely played up Johansson's hotness better than any other movie before. In fact, everyone looked really good in this movie.
7 - El Bicho
"All Allen does is recite everyone's common gripes about luck and chance and then acts as if he's saying something weighty and substantial."
You are looking too hard. It's basically a modern-day film noir that also addresses the lack of control people realize they have in their lives. You incorrectly act like it'a an attempt at a deep philosophical treatise.
"The movie doesn't reveal anything about life we do not already know."
I'm sorry, but what movie does this?
8 - Zach
Well, if your only gripe is that the movie wasn't interesting, then I honestly don't know what you're getting at. Clearly it's a difference of opinion...I thought it was interesting, you didn't. So what?
9 - Rodney Welch
"I'm sorry, but what movie does this?"
Oh hell, lots of them. All good ones. They illuminate life. They interest, they intrigue. This one just leads you up a blind alley. I want is an ending better than I could have assumed or guessed at. It was just shallow.
10 - Zach
So why do you keep complaining about it here? Write Woody Allen; we can't fix it.
11 - Rodney Welch
For the same reason you keep sending him valentines, I guess.
12 - Zach
Well, sadly, your insistent and subjective cries of "not interesting!" haven't changed my mind yet. Keep trying, though.
13 - Rodney Welch
Zach, please, all I'm doing is responding to people who responded to what I said earlier. If you liked it, fine; I'm glad you enjoyed it more than I did. We're just having a discussion.
14 - El Bicho
Rodney, again, what movie revealed something up life you didn't know already?
15 - Rodney Welch
Are you serious or just being a prick?
16 - El Bicho
I'm asking you to explain a statement you made. If you can't do it, than just disappear and stop responding. But if you want start throwing around insults, I'm fine with that too.
While movies may remind us of things we don't think a lot about, I don't know of one that reveals something we don't know unless we are watching it at the age of 12.
17 - Rodney Welch
El Bicho, If you want to be literal about it -- and you strike me as the sort -- every movie tells you something you don't know, and some impart genuine factual information. David Mamet's House of Games shows you how to con people out of money. Sidney Lumet's Power reveals inside facts about political campaigns. There are actual credible historical films where the drama doesn't obscure the truth. Probably any film from any decade can teach you something about life and culture in that time.
You could even say the same of Match Point, I suppose, since if nothing else it reminds you that Woody Allen's idea of probing insight is to replay the precise same theme he aired in Crimes and Misdemeanors. It does teach you that, yes, but you tell me -- where is the illumination in this film, even if, as you suggest, we accept it as a film noir? What did you like about it? I can see liking it up to a point, as I said earlier, but I wanted more from the ending than Allen gave me. It was too slight, you know -- hollow. It was Allen just saying life is all about luck, and that's about all he left you to chew on.
It seems to me that my statement that the movie doesn't teach you anything about life you didn't already know has put you in such a wrangle because, as you see it, no movie teaches anything. Fine -- why don't you tell me, then, how to watch Match Point and why, taking in consideration the ending, it works as an artistic experience of any kind. Why are you so insistent on letting it off so easy? Is it just idle hero-worship on your part?
18 - Mark Saleski
you guys are so analytical! sometimes you just have to let art flow over you.
19 - Matt Largo
Good review Zach. I plan of seeing it because I like Woody Allen's work and Scarlett Johansson is smokin' hot. My two rules:
1. Don't look for the meaning of life at the cinema. 2. Don't get religion from bumper stickers.
20 - Rodney Welch
Cute.